Page 44 of Potions and Proposals
Chaos stretched before leaping down from her tower. Lucy tried to pick her up, but the cat only hissed.
“We need to fix this before one of us gets hurt.” The worry in his voice arrested her. In the silence, she looked at her ruined curtains and hoped the fabric shop still had some of it left. She loved the silver-threaded florals.
“I can’t believe you broke into my room,” she said, frowning at Chaos and trying not to be upset about her furry friend’s snub.
“I didn’t break in. I climbed the tree and your balcony door was open,” he explained.
Lucy usually left the door ajar so Chaos could get in and out, since her favourite spot was the tree outside. She tried to picture Benedict climbing the tree in his long coat and expensiveshoes.How could I have missed that?The mental image made up for the jumpscare.
“Well, feel free to climb back down,” she said, turning on her bedside lamps.
“I wouldn’t have had to come at all if you’d answered your phone!”
To Lucy’s intense irritation, Chaos weaved herself through Benedict’s legs, purring.
Benedict bent to stroke her. “Strange. Didn’t she use to hate me?”
Chaos climbed into his arms, purring happily. The only satisfaction Lucy got from the betrayal was that his immaculate suit would be covered in cat hair.
“I think she senses our elements switched. She won’t let me near her, and that’s the only thing that’s different,” she sulked.
“Speaking of our elements, whydidn’tyou answer your phone?”
“I meant to get back to you! I ended up sleeping in the vault last night going through everything, and I found the curse-stripping potion in the Hawthorne grimoire, but I don’t know if it’ll remove our elements altogether or swap them back,” Lucy said, crossing her arms. “Our best option is to try the original spell again and hope it’ll cancel out the mistake in the first attempt. Now, if you wouldn’t mind leaving, I’m tired.”
“When can we try? The sooner we get back to normal the better,” Benedict insisted, following her around the room as she cleaned up. “Can you please stand still for a minute? We need to talk.” He put Chaos back on her tower.
“We talked at dinner. And please don’t refer to me as your fiancée to others. It gives people the wrong impression about us.”
“Afraid your new friend will be scared off? We’re to be bound by the end of the month,” he reminded her.
She stopped cleaning. Two things she couldn’t believe: one, that Benedict Matherson was seeing her mess of a room, and two, that he sounded jealous.
“Why would he be scared off by our… whatever it is?” she scoffed. “If anything, he’d be scared off by your antagonism. I don’t think either of us want him to report back to the Order that a Matherson is rather outspoken about his hatred towards their members.”
“I won’t be hostile if you don’t invite a stranger into your home,” Benedict countered, flipping through a botany guide on her desk. She wished he wouldn’t look through her things; it felt far too intimate.
“I invited him to dinner to see how he’d hold up against Mum and Grams.” Not that she owed him any explanation. “He passed the tests in the vault; any ill intent would have caused him serious harm.”
Benedict snapped the book closed. Lucy cringed, wishing she’d kept that part to herself.
“You brought an Order member into the vault?” He acted more hurt than angry. “Why do you trust a man you’ve only known for a few hours, but treat me like I’m the enemy?”
“I don’t treat you like an enemy! AndifI did, it would be because of all that’s happened between us over the years.” She put herself between him and her crowded desk so he’d stop prying. It was distracting.
“You played a part in our past. If that Order member learned that my fire flows through you, you can be sure his attitude would change.”
“Stop throwing the swap in my face. It wasn’t my fault, and he won’t find out,” she snapped, feeling flames swell in her chest.
“You don’t know that, and I’ll stop when you stop throwing my family’s past in mine,” he retorted, closing the gap between them. “That was a low blow at dinner.”
Exasperated, Lucy took a minute to breathe.
“I’m sorry for bringing up your family,” she said at last. “I wanted to distract you from arguing with him. The thought of you ending up on the Order’s list…” She cut herself off, not even knowing how to finish the sentence. “One petty victory isn’t worth getting tangled up with the Order.”
“Are you sure you weren’t just protecting your new friend?” Benedict asked, narrowing his eyes. Testing her.
“Protectinghim?” His refusal to understand made her want to set the whole damn attic alight.
